NORTH AMERICA: Weekend Actuals: 'Jurassic World' Remains #1 with $54.5M; 'Inside Out' A Close Second with $52.3M; 'Ted 2' Underwhelms with $33.5M Debut; 'Max' Off to Solid $12.2M Start

By Daniel Garris

In what turned out to be a very tight race for first place this weekend, Universal's Jurassic World was able to hold off Disney's Inside Out with a weekend take of $54.53 million. The two films were separated by only $2.21 million over the weekend frame. Jurassic World fell 49 percent from last weekend's performance (which was inflated by the Father's Day holiday). The film claimed the third largest third weekend performance of all-time without adjusting for ticket price inflation; behind only the $68.49 million third weekend take of 2009's Avatar and the $55.64 million third weekend take of 2012's Marvel's The Avengers.

Jurassic World surpassed the $500 million mark on Sunday and has grossed $500.37 million in 17 days. In reaching the $500 million domestic milestone in 17 days, Jurassic World easily shattered the previous record of 23 days held by The Avengers. Jurassic World is now the highest grossing release of 2015 to date domestically as it has zoomed past the $452.47 million total gross of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Without adjusting for ticket price inflation, Jurassic World is already the fifth highest grossing film of all-time domestically. The film is running an extremely impressive $42.70 million and 9 percent ahead of the $457.67 million 17-day take of The Avengers.

Inside Out held up very nicely this weekend with a second place take of $52.32 million. The critically acclaimed 3D computer animated blockbuster from Pixar declined 42 percent from last weekend's already stronger than expected debut. That represented a stronger second weekend percentage hold than those of both 2013's Monsters University (which fell 45 percent to gross $45.61 million) and 2010's Toy Story 3 (which fell 46 percent to gross $59.34 million). Extremely strong word of mouth and critical reviews, being a non-sequel and being more weekend heavy than other recent Pixar films all helped Inside Out this weekend. Inside Out continues to exceed its already lofty expectations in a big way with a ten-day take of $185.14 million. That places the film 9 percent ahead of the $170.43 million ten-day gross of Monsters University and 18 percent behind the $226.89 million ten-day take of Toy Story 3.

While Jurassic World and Inside Out continued to excel this weekend, Ted 2 was off to a very underwhelming third place start with $33.51 million. The Seth MacFarlane directed comedy sequel from Universal and MRC opened well below pre-release expectations, which had tended to range anywhere from $45 million to $60 million heading into the weekend. Ted 2 appears to have suffered significantly from being unable to stand out from its predecessor and mixed critical reviews didn't help matters either. There's also little doubt that potential for the film was ultimately limited by the breakout performances of both Jurassic World and Inside Out. Ted 2 opened 38 percent below the $54.42 million debut of 2012's Ted and as a sequel is highly likely to be more front-loaded than its predecessor was.

Ted 2 started out with $13.29 million on Friday (which included an estimated $2.6 million from Thursday evening shows), fell a lackluster 15 percent on Saturday to gross $11.32 million and declined 21 percent on Sunday to take in $8.90 million. That placed the film's opening weekend to Friday ratio at 2.52 to 1. The audience breakdown for Ted 2 skewed towards male moviegoers (59 percent) and slightly towards moviegoers 25 years and older (51 percent). Ted 2 received a solid B+ rating on CinemaScore and will hope to hold up well going forward with additional help from the upcoming Independence Day holiday frame.

Meanwhile, Max debuted in line with its far more modest expectations with a fourth place take of $12.16 million. The modestly budgeted family film from Warner Bros. and MGM was off to a solid start this weekend, especially given the competition it faced for family audiences from Inside Out. Max comfortably outpaced the $8.36 million opening weekend take of last year's Earth to Echo and nearly matched the $13.57 million five-day debut of that film (which opened on a Wednesday). There haven't been many dog themed wide releases in recent years, but Max opened just ahead of the $11.60 million start of 2010's Marmaduke.

Max opened with $4.37 million on Friday (which included an estimated $0.50 million from Thursday evening shows), increased a slim 3 percent on Saturday to gross $4.49 million and fell 26 percent on Sunday to take in $3.30 million. That gave the film an opening weekend to Friday ratio of 2.78 to 1. The audience breakdown for Max skewed towards female moviegoers (55 percent) and moviegoers over the age of 25 (57 percent). Max received a strong A rating on CinemaScore. The film is likely to hold up well going forward, though it will also be facing further competition for family audiences from Universal's highly anticipated Minions beginning on July 10.

Fox's Spy rounded out the weekend's top five with $7.91 million. The Melissa McCarthy led comedy held up well again this weekend as it was down just 29.5 percent. After getting out of the gates slower than expected, Spy has stabilized nicely over the past two weeks thanks in part to strong word of mouth. Spy also likely received an added boost this weekend from the softer than expected start of Ted 2. The 24-day total for Spy stands at $88.46 million, which places the film 18 percent behind the $107.43 million 24-day take of 2013's Identity Thief.